[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hello, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for the food New Beverage industry. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-host for this episode, John Craven, Jacqui Brugliera, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we feature the latest edition of Special Ops with Andrew Guard, in which the operations expert shares his take on both opportunities and challenges that are impacting new and emerging beverage and food companies. Welcome back, John Craven. It's been a while. Thanks. Yes. You seem, uh, you seem pretty mellow. You're not still in California mode. You're back in the fast paced world of Boston, Massachusetts. Yeah. Yeah. Something, something like that.
[00:00:56] John Craven: Mean on my long commute from Newton over here to the other part of Newton.
[00:01:01] Ray Latif: Yeah, nice. I just noticed your Apple watch yeah, I had one for As long as there's been an Apple watch for some reason it looks bigger It looks like it's almost like an iPhone.
[00:01:11] John Craven: I got it.
[00:01:11] Ray Latif: You know It's a huge face. It's like half an iPhone
[00:01:18] John Craven: Yeah, I got the the mega super edition with the 12-inch screen just on my wrist No, that's like a two-inch screen though.
[00:01:26] Ray Latif: It's pretty big no no pro max.
[00:01:28] John Craven: That's the Apple episode sponsored by Apple Ray We said we've said Apple enough times probably not talking about okay much all right Shorts to go with this Apple watch fine.
[00:01:39] Ray Latif: I just haven't seen it. I thought maybe you got in San Diego, but you didn't
[00:01:42] John Craven: No, no, no, I did not buy any new Apple gear in San Diego.
[00:01:46] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:01:47] John Craven: Yeah shocking I don't know. Is there any new Apple gear to buy?
[00:01:50] Jacqui Brugliera: I don't think there's anything new to buy right now Mike looks like he just got shot cuz he was so surprised I know that was pretty surprising John Craven went on a trip and have to get new Apple gear
[00:01:58] Ray Latif: Okay, but I how many times did you go to the office? How many times you go to the West Coast brand? Are you Kathy or something?
[00:02:07] Mike Schneider: These are CFO and I don't know went over there a couple of times I waited wait until after dark He would come in the darkness of night and then leave some goodies in the fridge for us yeah, that's nice That was such a weird thing to say
[00:02:28] Ray Latif: Reverse burglar Mike you're also in California. Do you guys get to catch up?
[00:02:34] Jacqui Brugliera: No, I was in LA you were in San Diego We were just like, you know, you were in California northern from San Diego. Well, yeah, I would hardly call LA, California No, so Cal there was a joke
[00:02:51] Ray Latif: All right, but anyway, you went and saw Arsenal, yeah? I did. I did go to the match.
[00:02:55] Jacqui Brugliera: I prodded him to do it. John prodded me, because I didn't... So everyone was talking about the matches, the 27th, the 27th, the 27th, but...
[00:03:03] Ray Latif: So just to be clear, Arsenal was doing a U.S. tour, they did an exhibition match in L.A.
[00:03:08] Jacqui Brugliera: They played Barcelona, and of course I wanted to go to that. And I happened to be going to check out the Marina del Rey. Happened to be going, yeah, sure.
[00:03:16] Mike Schneider: It was good timing. But perfect timing.
[00:03:18] Jacqui Brugliera: It was good timing. I thought the game was on the 27th, which was when I was coming back. Because everyone was saying the game's on the 27th. But that's 27th UK time, 3.30 in the morning on the 27th, which is the 26th for us, which meant I could go to the game.
[00:03:33] Ray Latif: That's a very complicated way of saying I went to the game. Before I tell you about my travels, I want to thank our presenting sponsor for this episode. That's Tetra Pak, the pioneering packaging solutions company that provides safe, innovative, and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Learn more at tetrapak.com. Jackie, you have a Tetra Pak in your hand.
[00:03:59] Mike Schneider: I do. Yeah. Saint James. Saint James is packaged in Tetra Pak. And Saint James, for people that don't know, is a line of organic teas. And this one is their green tea.
[00:04:11] Ray Latif: That's good stuff. This is the perfect Tales of The year for an iced tea. You need something that's Refreshing Take somewhat bold and flavorful, and you don't want a soda. What do you drink? Iced tea. Out of a Tetra Pak, that is.
[00:04:24] Jacqui Brugliera: So basically what you're saying, every time in San Diego is the best time for tea. No.
[00:04:30] Mike Schneider: It's always summer here.
[00:04:32] Ray Latif: It gets cold. Come on.
[00:04:33] Mike Schneider: May, gray, June, gloom. No tea, but the Tales of The time.
[00:04:37] Ray Latif: That 60 degree winter they have. I noticed we were getting warmer weather here than in San Diego, like during July. That's global boiling for you though, right? And like 90% more humidity. Don't forget that.
[00:04:49] Jacqui Brugliera: It's like we live in Florida. We got to fix this climate.
[00:04:52] Ray Latif: You have no idea what humidity is until you've been to New Orleans in July, where I was. Yeah, I was there last week. for the annual Tales of The Cocktail Conference, which is an exhibition of what's new, happening, trending in bar hospitality, in spirits. Fantastic event. I think they have about 5,000 people that go, usually people who are bartenders, bar directors, influencers, spirit ambassadors, spirit executives. They're all kind of convening into this one place. And I really enjoyed myself. I was only there for a couple of days, but you could definitely tell what was trending, what was happening for 2023 and beyond. You know, speaking of refreshment, it felt like there was an emphasis on complex, yet also really refreshing cocktails, things like spritzes, highballs. You know, somebody might say, oh yeah, well that makes sense for New Orleans because it's hot and humid. But it seemed to be a trend that extended beyond seasonality. You saw scotch-based cocktails. Cocktails, you know things like yeah, glenn merengue. Johnnie Walker is the base spirit Which I really enjoyed because you know, sometimes you just don't want that sugar bomb that you typically get from these quote-unquote refreshing cocktails Definitely saw a lot of premium mezcal tequila, which seems to be a continuing trend There's there's definitely a gold rush for that. Everyone seems to be jumping in the pool, but there was much more of a clear delineation between premium tequila mezcal brands that were going for occasion Like, you know, that pool setting or just, you know, at a bar drinking tequila shots and those that were going for story, story first and foremost. I saw a couple of brands that I was really impressed by. Buzzcall, Mezcal and El Tequileno were both. really interesting brands that highlighted source, story, tradition, way more than I had typically seen in the past. And it seems to be resonating with consumers based on the conversations I had with executives from both companies. Also, you know, what was interesting is when I went last year, Lowe & Noel seemed to be top of mind and tip of the tongue for a lot of folks. This time around, it was interesting. I, you know, it was still a matter of conversation, but Tails had very much focused on two brands that seemed to be big sponsors of the event. And those were Ritual Zero and Liars, which pretty much dominated what I saw from Lowe & Noel. No stain on tails, but it seemed like a lot of the brands, the independent and small and emerging brands that I had seen last year, weren't necessarily as held in high regard. I think that's maybe not a great way of saying it, or just maybe weren't featured as prominently as they had been. And it might've been because they just, you know, had two brands that were pretty big sponsors of the events. And, you know, just kind of, that's the way the cookie crumbles. That's the nicest way I can say that. But anyway, a lot more coverage from Tails coming out in the next few weeks, interviews with entrepreneurs, distillers, executives from companies that are up and coming in the industry. Stay tuned. Did you guys see this that this is a total weird segue, Ben? I don't know. I don't know if it's possible to make this segue from Tales of The Cocktail to Giada De Laurentiis, who, you know, from the Food Network, she's a popular foodie chef. I don't know if she occupies that world of television gastronomy or within that world. She has a new pasta brand. It's called Giadzi. G-I-A-D-Z-Y. And she left the Food Network, I guess, relatively recently, and she's gotten into CPG via Giazzi Pasta. It has these interesting varieties, some of them which I've never heard of. I mean, certainly I've heard of Pappardelle, but Noti, Marini, Bucatini we've heard of, Tacoli, Paceri, I'm unfriendly. I don't know.
[00:08:49] John Craven: I mean right when you Italians on point tech holy when you use it all of garden You're not gonna hear about all these great pastas, right?
[00:09:06] Ray Latif: I'm trying to figure out why someone would buy this no offense to Jada I Yeah with heaping bowls of alfredo sauce But anyway geodesy yes, everyone is everyone who is a celebrity seems to have some sort of connection these days to a CPG brand or starting their own like geodesy, but I Don't know did we get samples. No we didn't we haven't gotten samples for samples. Did you I?
[00:09:42] John Craven: Yeah, kind of like multiple times, if I'm being honest.
[00:09:47] Mike Schneider: I mean, I don't know if I buy the product, I would maybe try some of these unique shapes. But I also know that, like, my grandparents love Giada. They send me all of her recipes from the Food Network, so I could see them buying her pasta.
[00:10:04] John Craven: I mean, but your point your point. I think is a good one in it like you know It's one of those parts of the store where it's like You know you've got all the sort of classic brands right the burrillas and the prints and whatever the blue boxes You know sure And then there's the other stuff that's sort of like trying to look more like authentic Italian, you know, the clear bag with maybe a little hand tied thing on it or whatever. And then I would assume, and I read that press release as I asked for those samples that I didn't get. But anyway, um, you know, it's kind of like, where does that fit? You know, is it a part of the store where like, you're just going and shopping and I don't know, maybe it's got a shot in that, you know, there's obviously some kind of hot stuff going on in the pasta sauce section at the moment. Who knows?
[00:10:56] Jacqui Brugliera: This is a great idea because, you know, pasta is the Legos of food. The different shapes. I could eat pasta every night if you change the shape.
[00:11:05] Ray Latif: Well, I mean, that's kind of what they're selling here, is that they have these harder to find shapes that are sold exclusively on her lifestyle website, Jadzee. So Jadzee is her, I guess, lifestyle brand, and then Jadzee Pasta is her pasta brand. But it's expensive. $10.50 for a 1.1 pound box. So you can have all the exciting, eccentric pasta shapes you want, as long as you pay $10.50.
[00:11:28] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm going to reuse them. I'm just going to use them as Legos, as I said before.
[00:11:31] Ray Latif: And you're 99 cent a pound pasta You know what I do like when you go to a Italian restaurant and they do provide you with a lot of pasta There are some places where they'll give you like this tiny tiny portion. Yeah, I It drives me crazy. Whereas if you go to a great place like Reno's, shout out to Reno's in East Boston, you will have pasta for days.
[00:12:00] Mike Schneider: You need leftovers. Leftover pasta is the best pasta.
[00:12:05] Ray Latif: Cause it soaks in all the, the pasta soaks in all the sauce.
[00:12:07] Mike Schneider: It's like leftover pizza, you know?
[00:12:09] Ray Latif: I've never had leftover pasta.
[00:12:11] SPEAKER_??: I always eat it all.
[00:12:12] John Craven: Try this order extra spaghetti is like the best it left over angel pasta either way $10 does sound expensive and Also, another thing I've noticed with pasta is that nowadays you could just buy some fresh pasta probably in your grocery store mm-hmm It's like not that much more expensive, but it's not cheaper than the jada one just
[00:12:34] Mike Schneider: Yeah, and she's selling it on her site. So she's trying to create like an e-commerce platform for all of her maybe future products too. And a lot of people found recipes online and will probably find these products and think that it's, you know, a premium product that will only make their recipes better. So I'm curious.
[00:12:53] Jacqui Brugliera: We just got John Craven in the grocery store holding this pasta wishing it was Gianna because they haven't sent any samples.
[00:12:59] Ray Latif: Well, I hope this conversation doesn't turn Giada off from a conversation on Taste Radio. If you are listening or anyone from Giadzi or Giadzi Pasta, you know, we'd love to talk to Giada about her foray into CPG and about her career as a food aficionado and foodie. So reach out, askatasteradio.com. Love to have you on the show. She's not going to reach out. Please be a pasta bomb Those steak bombs like when you would get a steak sandwich. Yes, you go to DeAngelo's I never knew what it was a steak bomb is a steak and cheese sandwich with like salami Peppers and onions and like I think something else Think
[00:13:55] John Craven: I don't know. Add some French fries or something in the fridge.
[00:14:00] Mike Schneider: More meat.
[00:14:01] Ray Latif: Yeah. More meaty treaty. You said that very excitedly, Jackie, for someone who doesn't eat meat, you're like, I need, I miss meat.
[00:14:10] Mike Schneider: You know, for people that eat meat, like I get excited for them when they eat just a copious amount of meat.
[00:14:16] Ray Latif: So that's for me. Okay. You know, I think what else is on the steak bomb? Mustard. True story. I was going to guess ceviche, but I don't know. And tomorrow, today is August 4th, at least the day of the publication of this episode. Tomorrow, August 5th, is National Mustard Day. Did you know that? I did because I think I saw the same PR that you saw. Yes, this is all over the slacks, our slack. French's, the famous mustard brand, announced limited edition mustard Skittles.
[00:14:46] Mike Schneider: Mustard's kind of going viral on TikTok a little bit with just all these different weird food combos. So people are putting mustard on watermelon. There's also this recent trend this summer where they have a plate of just all these different things, including heart of palm, vegetables, and then they mix cottage cheese and mustard and then dip all of these things in the cottage cheese and mustard.
[00:15:08] Jacqui Brugliera: Now I'm going to turn off Taste Radio. I actually want to eat mustard Skittles now. I bet Dr. Squatch would put it in soap.
[00:15:14] Ray Latif: Talk about someone who's always call out a brand on the show Samples lately
[00:15:23] John Craven: How about I answer your question, Ray? Okay. Which I think was sort of loosely like, what's the deal with, you know, these kind of collaboration things.
[00:15:31] Ray Latif: But I said it in a very Seinfeld kind of way anyway.
[00:15:34] John Craven: You did. But I mean, I think for brands like Skittles, sure. Why not? You know, big company, big marketing budget. And let's be honest, would we be talking about Skittles? Otherwise, would anyone be talking about Skittles right now if it weren't for that?
[00:15:48] Ray Latif: Probably not. So, hey, have at it. Probably not. But, you know, tomorrow, if you're in New York City by Hudson River Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. That is really specific. It's on the press release. You can go stop by and you can get some of these Skittles.
[00:16:00] John Craven: Where do you have to stop by?
[00:16:01] Ray Latif: I just said it's in Hudson. What is it? You didn't say what it was. It's some sort of pop-up, I guess.
[00:16:07] Jacqui Brugliera: I'll take turns naming a worse flavor of Skittle. I'll go first. Codfish Skittle.
[00:16:12] Ray Latif: Hold on, I want to clarify. It's not a pop-up. It's a mustard mobile. It's a bright yellow custom-designed vintage bus with a big, giant mustard Skittles logo on top. So I'm going to put this out there. To folks who are listening, if you are in New York City... I'm calling Barry when we're done. Call Barry, the publisher of BevMet Magazine. Hudson River Park, from 11 to 3. If you can snag some of these Skittles, we will trade you for some awesome Taste Radio gear. Multiple, uh, multiple pieces of Taste Radio gear and perhaps, you know, some other stuff that you might want from our fridge here.
[00:16:46] Mike Schneider: This is kind of smart because other brands, you know, they do like a full rollout of the product and producing a bunch of it. But if they're just doing, you know, a couple hours of handing out mustard Skittles, they're probably not creating a bunch of these, but they're getting a bunch of publicity.
[00:17:00] John Craven: They probably have someone in the back of the mustard mobile, literally cutting open like Skittles and like squirting in some mustard. Like one of those, uh, what do you call those things? Those like walking tacos?
[00:17:10] Mike Schneider: Yeah.
[00:17:11] John Craven: Like a walking taco.
[00:17:11] Jacqui Brugliera: They're going to do a collaboration with Nathan's hotdogs while they're there. Why wouldn't they? I don't know. Yeah. Get Joey Chestnut, Garbage Mouth Hot Dogs with Mustard Skittles. Is that a nip, Ray? What do you got there?
[00:17:24] Ray Latif: No, this is not a nip. I just pulled off the table here some plant drops. This is a brand called Wells, W-E-H-L. And the founder of the company stopped by last week, stopped by the office, that is. to sample these for everyone who is here. These are wellness drops, that's how they're positioned. This one highlights that a functionality of revive, cleanse, and actuate. Actuate, that's a nice word. I'd be hard-pressed to adequately explain what actuate means, so I won't. But you add this to a water or cell source, just like plant-based water drops. This one's made with organic sweet bay. Immortal or more tell. Is that a mushroom? I believe it is immoral. Is your thinking of a morale mushroom? Yeah, no, it says I M M O R T E L L E. Don't know what that is. I'll look it up and then we'll get back to you on that and also rosemary. So that's one variety and then another variety I have here. The functionality is paused, reflect and refresh. It's called center for calm. This one is made with lemon balm, Angelica and chamomile.
[00:18:32] Mike Schneider: How do they taste when you put them in like just sparkling water or water? Do they have like a strong flavor, like strong herbal flavor?
[00:18:40] Jacqui Brugliera: They're not strong. They're just there, you know? So, I mean, if you put like a couple drops in, you barely notice. But if you did eight drops, you know, I just. I liked it. It tastes good. It's kind of Hard Tea tell if you just put a couple of drops in, Jackie, there's like an, they're basically like adding essence to your water. So, and they've got different function. I do need a decoder ring cause they gave us sample packs and I didn't, I didn't Google it or anything. So it's kind of Hard Tea tell what's in it, but if you want it to be flavor, you have to add a lot of drops.
[00:19:09] Mike Schneider: Yeah. And I was looking at it and it said like 10 drops for if you want sparkling water or 15 drops, if you want to put it in your water bottle. So I'm also curious, just like how much equals how much functionality and like, when do you feel the benefits?
[00:19:25] Ray Latif: There's only one way to find out. Drink the entire bottle all at once.
[00:19:29] Mike Schneider: Do it, Ray.
[00:19:30] Ray Latif: Do it. Do it, Ray. Do it. Okay. Peer pressure. No, don't do it, Ray. In all seriousness, it was great to see Eric Bellhausen, who is the founder of the company, dropping by. Thank you so much for stopping by. Again, as always, we love visitors here at the office. Please come by anytime, as did Joshua Velasquez, who's one of the co-founders of a brand called Nutin' Ordinary. Nutin' Ordinary is a maker of dairy-free cream cheese. They also make ravioli with dairy-free filling. Josh brought over some absolutely outstanding cheesecake cupcakes. Made with not an ordinary cream cheese, and they were just dynamite.
[00:20:09] Jacqui Brugliera: I miss Josh, but I did not miss those little cupcake things.
[00:20:12] Ray Latif: Those were awesome. Yeah, they were cupcake sandwiches. Yeah, sort of. They were just, I don't know how to just, they weren't really even cupcakes per se.
[00:20:18] Jacqui Brugliera: I would call them, they were, it was almost like muffin top, cream cheese bottom muffin top. Two muffin top sandwich. Tiny though. They were tiny. They were almost like mini. The best part of the muffin. Mini carrot cakes. They were little carrot cake muffin sand, they were, whatever they were, they were fleeeet.
[00:20:33] Ray Latif: Yeah, I ate three of them. I think everyone else in the office ate at least two they were so good. I bleep myself We talked about an upcoming rebrand for Not An Ordinary, which looks amazing. I'm not going to reveal any details about it, but it looks fantastic. I'm really excited for them and the brand. That's cool. I mean, the new brand is going to be better because that one's good. That one's pretty good. Yeah. Well, we talked about this. It's busy.
[00:20:58] Jacqui Brugliera: They will fully admit that the, you know, the, but it's on, it's on trend for cream cheese and well, I don't. Think it looks like cream cheese though. It looks more like hummus actually. Yeah, that's it You know what? That's I I take that back. I thought it was hummus at first.
[00:21:12] Ray Latif: Yeah Yeah, how do you mix like a mini carrot cakes with hummus?
[00:21:18] Jacqui Brugliera: No in the package I mean good probably I didn't know that it was the cream cheese when I Hard Tea when I Hard Tea treat then someone had to tell me Oh, this is an order in the fridge.
[00:21:26] Ray Latif: I was here. You're always thinking about Arsenal not paying attention to the podcast One calls a numpty.
[00:21:33] SPEAKER_??: That's true
[00:21:33] Jacqui Brugliera: I'm always thinking about Arsenal. Hopefully they're winning right now. Hopefully. While they're playing Monaco in that Arsene Wenger derby.
[00:21:40] Ray Latif: Anyway, you'll see the new packaging. You'll see the rebrand pretty soon. It's fire. It looks so good. Everyone who saw it, he showed pictures of it on his phone to everyone in the office and everyone's like, that looks really, really good.
[00:21:50] Jacqui Brugliera: Wait, who did Dennis Bergkamp?
[00:21:54] The Cocktail: You know,
[00:21:55] Ray Latif: Like a big inhale and exhale after Mike just mentions like a historical fact or figure from Arsenal's past Okay, so John Craven you brought some those toaster treat.
[00:22:12] John Craven: Oh my god.
[00:22:12] Ray Latif: Yeah, these are from Ghetto Gastro Haven't heard of the brand, but love the name
[00:22:18] John Craven: Yeah, Ghetto Gastro I think is self-described as a culinary collective or something like that. It's a Black-owned brand, but it was kind of like a culinary community of sorts. I think it's been around like for a while, but these products are kind of the follow-up to some like breakfast products that they had, but these are in Target like nationally.
[00:22:44] Mike Schneider: Awesome.
[00:22:44] John Craven: These are the PB&J flavor. I think there's a couple of flavors, but this is like the only one they had locally, so. Pop-Tarts is the equivalent to what these are. Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know. I saw this, I think, who posted it? Andrea from SnackShop posted it, and I'm like, that's a target. I don't know, I'll just get some. So, cool packaging, cool story. I'm definitely kind of a sucker for trying Pop-Tarts, although I, I don't know, when I was a kid, I'd probably eat like a box of these a day at some point, but, yeah, explains a lot about me. But anyway, these are just good, good tasty, you know, toast for pastries, so nicely done.
[00:23:21] Jacqui Brugliera: I thought those were like next level Pop-Tarts. I was pretty blown away by the whole, by the whole flavor.
[00:23:26] John Craven: I also liked the design of the bag itself. But you know what was the best part? It got this nice white, black and white, like block letter thing going.
[00:23:34] Jacqui Brugliera: They put some time into the crust too because the way that they toast up is really nice and it gets a little bit Crispy and the the flavor inside is really good too.
[00:23:42] John Craven: Yeah, no no it's it's well done. I mean this is not like you know Designed I mean this is 210 calories and 15 grams of sugar like it's just a You know indulgent product with cool modern flavors and branding.
[00:23:57] Jacqui Brugliera: Yeah, it's not like better for you.
[00:23:59] John Craven: It's just better Which is fine. I mean you know again. I mean you're selling this in Target, right? So I think this will definitely catch some eyes. I think they're also selling What it called pancake syrup, and I'm not sure what their other products are but well two things pop out I recommend these yeah two things pop out immediately.
[00:24:16] Ray Latif: I mean the black packaging is definitely disruptive for that space totally And then a PB&J variety, I don't think I've ever seen that in a toaster pastry or Pop-Tarts, so yeah, good stuff.
[00:24:26] John Craven: Might be out there, but that one, again, pretty tasty, so. What are the others?
[00:24:30] Jacqui Brugliera: Do we know? Other PB&J? No, the other Ghetto Gastro Pop-Tart flavors.
[00:24:34] John Craven: I think I had one that was like maple something that sounded really good, and then there's like a chocolate raspberry, and I think there's a fourth one, maybe.
[00:24:43] Mike Schneider: Is there frosting on any of them?
[00:24:46] John Craven: I don't think so.
[00:24:48] Jacqui Brugliera: We're gonna have to do some more research Jackie.
[00:24:50] John Craven: Let's do it.
[00:24:51] Ray Latif: They also have a pancake and waffle mix as well.
[00:24:54] John Craven: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I bought these through the like Target same-day delivery because like targets nearby and I'm lazy and The guy who's picking them up for me was like they were like basically just unloading them from the truck Like on the day that they're nationally launching so Wow yeah, very cool trying to move their sales needle quickly here.
[00:25:15] SPEAKER_??: Oh
[00:25:17] Ray Latif: So I brought back with me from Tales of The Cocktail, some French truck coffee. Moet Hennessy has a custom blend with French truck. If you're not familiar with the brand, they make upscale or premium coffee. They have cafes all over the city.
[00:25:31] John Craven: Wait, does this have Hennessy in it?
[00:25:33] Ray Latif: No, but it's actually, I shouldn't say no, I'm not exactly sure, but the flavors are toffee, berry, and cream. If you haven't tried French truck coffee, and you're in New Orleans. I highly recommend you do make a trip to one of their cafes It is delicious Kenny Sadowski aka New Beverage whisperer turned me on to French truck, and it is fantastic I pass on this 12 ounce bag to Mike when he got it. I did this earlier, and he's like ground coffee You might as well spit in my face. No, but try it's really good. I'm going to yeah I Which one are you going to try it or spit in my face? Both.
[00:26:07] Jacqui Brugliera: Why not? You just offered, so...
[00:26:12] Mike Schneider: I am drinking these Gunna beverages. So this is a UK-based... G-U-N-N-A? Yeah, G-U-N-N-A. It's a UK-based, better for you soda brand. These ones have some really interesting names. This one's Turtle Juice and it has a turtle on the front. This one's Ginger Rebel and it has a monkey and Tales of The have really fun characters. There's also this one which is Pink Punk and it's Raspberry Lemonade. So they're all better for you sparkling lemonades.
[00:26:49] John Craven: What is the flavor of turtle juice?
[00:26:53] Mike Schneider: It's just tropical lemonade.
[00:26:55] John Craven: Tropical lemonade, OK. Yeah.
[00:26:57] Mike Schneider: And then the monkey one, the ginger rebel is ginger lemonade. So I'm not quite sure what the monkey has to do with ginger lemonade, but it's fun. And they do a lot of fun things on their social media with these different characters. They also have some added vitamins in these two. So it's calling out that it's immune boosting. And they're really focusing on using cans and not plastic to try and help just reduce plastic use.
[00:27:23] Ray Latif: I love the way you describe that, Jackie. I think they should change the flavor name from turtle juice to the monkey one and just like describe it based on a specific animal.
[00:27:32] Mike Schneider: The monkey one.
[00:27:33] Ray Latif: Yeah, the monkey one. I love that. That feels so Gen Z. Oh yeah, I love the monkey one.
[00:27:36] Mike Schneider: The monkey one. Yeah. People would know. And then they have, yeah, people on their social media just wearing like these monkey faces and holding New Beverage.
[00:27:45] Ray Latif: There you go. That's more of a reason to change the name to The Monkey One. Mike just held his head there.
[00:27:55] Jacqui Brugliera: You don't like this idea? So much advice that we've given to not do that. And then there's Ray going, you should call your beverage The Monkey One.
[00:28:03] Mike Schneider: Why not?
[00:28:04] Jacqui Brugliera: Why not?
[00:28:05] Mike Schneider: All right, fine. I get it. And then it's just a surprise when you drink it, I guess, because you don't know what flavor it is. Exactly. Yeah.
[00:28:11] Jacqui Brugliera: Ray's like, exactly. I'm like, exactly.
[00:28:17] Ray Latif: Alright, it's time to get to our featured interview for this episode as we once again welcome Right Coast Brands founder Andrew Guard back to the show. This conversation is the third installment of our regular series with Andrew, who reflects on brands featured in BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 25 competition held in June. why mushrooms have become the it ingredient and how they're incorporated into new foods New Beverage, and innovative concepts that he and his team are bringing to life, including a kava-based drink and a Refreshing Take tea. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio, happy to be back on the mics with Andrew Guard for another installment of Special Ops with Andrew Guard. Is that kind of a weird thing to say? It's my name a lot of times, but I'm okay with that. Yeah. Good to see you.
[00:29:05] Special Ops: You too. I'm happy to be here. It's nice to be in a cool dark room.
[00:29:09] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, you mentioned earlier that at your manufacturing facility at Right Coast Brands, there isn't air conditioning within the operation space.
[00:29:18] Special Ops: No, our facility is now four flex spaces. So they're pretty benign in terms of, you know, what they have, you know, their capabilities and each of the spaces has an office. The offices has a mini split and that's nice and comfortable in there, but none of us spend any time in there. We're always kind of bouncing between the four main areas and we have bay doors open and big port-a-cool fans and you know stuff to to do what we can to stay cool, but when you have a big pasteurizer running at 160 plus degrees and a shrink bundler you know shrinking film It's it's just hot even if you're pumping in the air conditioning It's not gonna do a lot, then you're just you stay in there You know you can't you know you have to get back out, and then I also feel bad You know I can like sneak away into it, but not everyone can so I don't want to be the guy in the cool room, you know, when everyone else is there sweating and making miracles happen for people.
[00:30:13] Ray Latif: Yeah. How many folks are working for the company now? Eight.
[00:30:15] Special Ops: Eight. Eight full-time, three part-time.
[00:30:19] Ray Latif: You have been... At it, so to speak. Yeah, for sure. Just ask my wife and kids. I mean, there's a lot going on in terms of Benebridge innovation. And you're, I mean, I've seen some of the things that you brought, you know, last time and then this time, and it's some really interesting stuff. I like bringing you gifts. I appreciate that. There's some really, really cool gifts that we unfortunately can't talk about just yet, but I'm excited to crack them open. I think the last time we saw each other was it in June for the New Beverage Jonah for a definite life Yeah, it wasn't that long ago.
[00:30:53] Special Ops: No, no, not too too long ago, but I was only there for the day though So I didn't make much of a trip of it
[00:30:57] Ray Latif: But it was a big day. I mean, quite a bit happened on day one of BevNET Live and that semi-final round for the showdown was excellent. As I mentioned before on the podcast, I think that group of 12 entrepreneurs and their brands was probably the best group of semi-finalists we've ever had.
[00:31:19] Special Ops: It's great to watch, you know, obviously I've been around a lot of the New Beverage showdowns. I was, you know, working with BevNET for the first one. So just to see the evolution of entrepreneurs coming into this space. really have an understanding of how they want to penetrate the market, how they're thinking about product market fit, how they're thinking about pricing. There's just so much more information available to people now that they can really hit the ground running. And you could see it in their presentations and the way that they're able to talk about their points of differentiation, their ingredient decks, the whys of what they're choosing to do. It makes for a much more compelling, much more, you know, deeper conversation with a lot of these people.
[00:32:07] Ray Latif: Let's talk about the good and some of the things that needed work in these presentations. The good first, I saw some really tight and compelling presentations in under two minutes, which was pretty amazing.
[00:32:19] Special Ops: I agree with you. I think also it's just the output of the way the world is now too, in terms of consuming information and sharing information, like they have to be in like, very fast clips, right? So if you think about it in the world of Instagram or TikTok, two minutes is an eternity. Yeah, that's true. So if you have the ability to tell your story across two minutes, that's like unheard of this day and age. You know, that's a big platform. And I think you see that in the way you learn how to communicate what matters. Like there can't be a second of boring. You know, everything has to be tight and edited. And you saw that. And I think that comes from, next era of entrepreneurs who are probably maybe slightly younger than you and I and Are more comfortable having themselves be out there and presenting just because it's this part of their daily life So I think that aids in you know a better presentation and I think in Tales of The good There's so much thought going into the ingredient decks in terms of quality ingredients, you know, not having any stuff that's in there that is going to be a deterrent to consumers or retailers. This shows a high level of education. So my favorite products there were the ones that were really thoughtful in terms of like what the functional components were, how they go about adding sweetness to drinks and things like that.
[00:33:39] Ray Latif: I think one of the other things that really stood out to me was the amount of market-ready packaging. I mean, so slick, so thoughtful in the way they are informing the consumer, attracting the consumer in the very limited amount of time that a consumer has to decide whether or not they're going to buy that product. Some needed work, but for the most part, I thought packaging was stellar.
[00:34:05] Special Ops: I agree almost to a fault though. Just knowing the flip side of it from a procurement and manufacturing standpoint, I wish everything and anything just worked, but there's a lot of setup, a lot of change that has to happen to make a product like Dayo work at some level of scale. I mean, it's just going to be very expensive, heavy glass, screen printed glass, like all these things are beautiful, but very, very challenging.
[00:34:35] Ray Latif: Endeo brand of functional wellness waters, upscale functional wellness waters. I mean, akin to like a, I guess a smart water, but with added functional benefit.
[00:34:46] Special Ops: Yeah. It's like the, the evolution of what smart water, I don't know if they're still trying to do this, but they went into that space where they had, you know, tranquility and different types of versions to be very direct on certain areas of better for you-ness.
[00:35:01] Ray Latif: Yeah. The winner of the competition, Parch, a brand of non-alcoholic cocktails intended to replicate the flavor and experience of drinking a tequila or mezcal cocktail. I think the judge from the Coca-Cola company had mentioned that the packaging was the best he had seen at the entire show, not just in the showdown. Interesting. And I thought that was obviously a very Impressive comment to make about the brand, but it wasn't too far off. I don't think I think Parchees.
[00:35:36] Special Ops: No, it's it's Worthy of the discussion right you know for sure. I think there's something that feels authentic It ties well with the name with the product. I like those products. I think there's really something to elevating non-alcoholic spirits based RTDs, you know, not just making it a combo of juices and spices. And you're like, it's kind of like The Cocktail, but like really going after, how do you, how do you harness the flavor of like a really botanical gin? Or how do you capture the smokiness and heat of like a mezcal? Like, I think that's kind of going to be what's on this next wave of that. And I think that is what's truly going to make the non-alcoholic cocktail segment really explode and then really become ubiquitous with alcohol cocktails. You know, I think the perfect storm scenario will be they can live side by side in a liquor store, at a bar, and there's no like, oh, this is the, you know, the black sheep section of the N.A. world. To me, that would be like a massive win for people looking for those products because it's not about alienation or like wanting to be different. You just kind of want to find things that you can enjoy and just manage your life the way that you feel you need to.
[00:36:55] Ray Latif: The question that came up a lot within the judges discussion is when would I drink this product? What is the day part use? What is the use education? How many of these is a customer going to drink per week?
[00:37:08] Special Ops: And that's what I brought up, you know, when we were on stage is that beautiful packaging is fantastic. Gets everyone excited. Great tasting liquid is fantastic because it's craveable, it's crushable, you wanna have it. But at the end of the day, this is a business. So are you building something that really whets the appetite of New Beverage business industry and how can you utilize your brand and your product in a way to capitalize on that? And I think just because of the strength of the presentations, the strength of the entrepreneurs presenting their brands and products, we're able to get to that conversation quicker. And, you know, I mentioned it then, like, I really think the theme of the day was like really managing for bottom line success, not just, you know, run at all costs. And. If you can get ahead of that right away by understanding how you can run a proper business, you're going to be light years ahead of so many people who have no idea.
[00:38:13] Ray Latif: And this goes back to the discussion of, well, okay, yes, it costs a lot of money to start New Beverage company, it costs a lot of money to scale New Beverage company, but when you're starting out, those angel investors that you want to help fund your brand are gonna wanna hear how big could this be, not how small this can be. And I've heard that over and over from angel investors, they're investing in potential. So if they don't really see the potential for this to scale, if they don't really see the potential for velocity, they're probably gonna pass.
[00:38:40] Special Ops: Right, and I think if you're out looking to raise money early on, you have to have the answers to those questions locked and loaded, and not just have the answers, but the belief and the plan to make them a reality. It'll help so much. You have to have that ability to answer those questions and then have the game plan to back it up. And, you know, if I were to invest in an early stage brand, like that's, I'd be asking all those questions, you know, outside of like me knowing so much about it. So like maybe my point of view might be slightly different than typical one-off angel investors, but. there's a lot of savvy people now, and there's a lot of information, and just look how much BebNet has grown in 10 years, right? In terms of being able to deliver information to people about this industry in unique and dynamic ways makes more and more people become quote-unquote experts, at least know enough to fake it. And that helps and hurts. And at least in my experience now dealing with entrepreneurial brands looking to launch or grow, I'm seeing kind of their, the results of their education.
[00:39:47] Ray Latif: You can tell people are reading. Whenever we do our elevators talk series and new episodes, and I hear these pitches from early stage entrepreneurs, I'm like, Wow, you're a lot more sophisticated than some of the folks that I spoke with six years ago. Before we hopped on the mics, I was asking you, you know, the first six months of 2023 and having worked with a ton of brands in that time, it seems like you would have a good understanding or a feel for what functional ingredients are most in demand. And you said something that I still question about, you know, like talking about scalability and velocity, whether or not this ingredient can drive dramatic interest, can drive velocity, and that ingredient is... Oh, it's mushrooms. Mushrooms. Okay.
[00:40:33] Special Ops: Yeah. So much so we were, we were just doing some housekeeping and we organized all the materials by by customers and by type, you know, if it's cold or warm or whatever, the amount of different brands that have reishi mushroom extract in our facility alone is astronomical. And from different suppliers and stuff too, like that's where like stuff that's new, I'm like, you usually can kind of figure out who's kind of leading the charge on making these functional materials, but it's kind of coming from all over the place. It's, it's pretty interesting.
[00:41:08] Ray Latif: Isn't it expensive though? Isn't it an expensive ingredient? And so I can't, going back to this point of if you want to sell a lot of product, the price that the end consumer is paying has got to be affordable enough so that you do have scaling potential. It can't be $4.
[00:41:28] Special Ops: I agree. I think also a piece of it too is functional dose per serving size as well. to use mushrooms, like you have to have a certain amount of milligrams per can or bottle to truly kind of access the benefits of it. And anything less than that, it's not really much. So that's part of it too. And then that's the double-edged sword, right? So the more you'd have to include, the more expensive your products are just from like a liquid cost standpoint.
[00:42:02] Ray Latif: And there's only a certain number of people that actually understand what the ingredient is, number one, and what it does for you, number two, and I guess number three, how much of a premium they're willing to pay to have that in their food New Beverage.
[00:42:15] Special Ops: Yep. Yep. I see it a lot as not just the functional ingredient, but part of a, you know, functional stack of things that are attacking energy focus, cognitive functioning, mood. They kind of run the gamut. Like there's stuff that I brought that has mushrooms in it as well as kind of like a secondary functional piece. It's not this black tea, is it? No, no, no. That's just really delicious.
[00:42:49] Ray Latif: This is a beautiful bottle. Brewed tea. I'll just call this brand out. What is it? Is it K?
[00:42:54] Special Ops: Yep. Kolo.
[00:42:55] Ray Latif: Kolo. Okay. This is a glass bottled iced tea that comes in a 12.8 fluid ounce bottle. I've never heard of a 12.8. It's a custom bottle. Everything's fresh brewed. That's a refrigerated product too, so. Tasting notes. Cocoa, dark fruit and nuts. Okay. I'm going to open this while we're continuing our discussion about functional mushrooms. And, you know, one of my co-hosts or one of the co-hosts for Taste Radio, Jackie Buclera, is our mushroom expert. She's our mushroom guru. She's always consuming mushrooms, but I feel like she is the outlier to mainstream consumers.
[00:43:28] Special Ops: Yeah, I don't know if there's part of like the intrigue of the psychedelicness of mushrooms. And I think a lot of marketing around mushrooms from a brand perspective blurs that line, even though like that's a very specific spore and all this stuff that like, which I do think will become more and more legal in certain ways. And I think there's some interesting entrepreneurs doing really good stuff in that space, in terms of like micro-dosed functional mushrooms, how that translates, and or if that rises the tide of, I would say, cognitive enhanced mushrooms, I don't know, or syncs it, because it's like, well, this is the one that works.
[00:44:13] Ray Latif: Is it akin to the interest that people had for CBD and THC?
[00:44:16] Special Ops: Very much so, very much so. And that was the same, it's almost kind of like a carbon copy scenario a little bit, I think the understood benefits of mushrooms in terms of just overall health and wellness is a bit more established, just because people consume mushrooms raw or cooked. I mean, like that's just about, it's a more understood thing than, you know, a THC-less version of cannabis, which is Still kind of this weird gray area. It's like when we're growing up and like hemp you're like, oh, it's hemp Like oh, it's made from marijuana. Like well, I mean That was all the allure, right? Like I think not much more than that maybe because it was sustainable or whatever but so it's a lot bamboo is like bamboo water
[00:45:07] Ray Latif: That wasn't really a thing. It was the most bleeding of edges things for a time. Yeah. You never know. You never know what's going to stick though. So it was MCT oil. MCT oil was it was a big thing for bulletproof coffee mm-hmm the super coffee guys were Highlighting that as the key ingredient or one of the key ingredients And what they were doing is where they were very much focused on keto they dropped all that and said hey, we're better for you Yeah, I think the hard part is if you're doing something like that in market as a brand how much energy are you spending on?
[00:45:38] Special Ops: doing the education that has nothing to do at the end of the day with your brand building. You're just helping build awareness, which makes sense, you know, to a certain extent. But if you're spending all this time talking about this one thing and not talking about like your whole finished product or package and how it all comes together, it's not going to stick around.
[00:45:58] Ray Latif: No. And again, do you want to have fun doing this or do you want to actually build a business doing this?
[00:46:06] Special Ops: Well, you can have fun while building a business. There's a lot of not fun-ness to it.
[00:46:12] Ray Latif: Yeah. I guess, you know, you can have fun, but I guess, are you doing this as a hobby or are you doing this as a business? And your co-founder, CulturePop co-founder famously said at a BevNET Live event, entrepreneurship is not a hobby. And so take it seriously and take it as something where, yes, you'll have fun, but don't ever forget that you're building something that requires a lot of focus and a lot of dotting the I's and crossing the T's, because if you miss one here or there, it could cost you a lot of money that could cost your business.
[00:46:42] Special Ops: Yeah, that's a hundred percent correct. And if you're looking to raise money, do all these things, and you yourself aren't 200% in on everything that it's going to take to have that business be successful, it's going to be challenging. It's going to be costly. It's going to be frustrating. It's going to be challenging. There's just no other way around it.
[00:47:06] Ray Latif: I don't want to, I don't want to. discourage people from enjoying themselves. I did an interview with Dylan Seglio, who's the co-founder of Chubby Snacks. You know, you can't not say Uncrustables when you're talking about Chubby Snacks. It is what it is. And that's a better for you Uncrustables. And toward the end of our interview, he's like, look, I, I just want to make it clear to entrepreneurs, most of the time that you're an entrepreneur, it's not fun. And you're dealing with stuff that's going to be hard and difficult for you to deal with on a daily basis. But hopefully, you know, there will be that, I don't want to call it a payoff, but not even a financial payoff, but a payoff in the end that makes you happy that you're doing what you do.
[00:47:46] Special Ops: Yeah, I mean, as someone who, I guess, I'm an entrepreneur as well, too, and taking risks and dealing with all the challenges of managing people and building something. And there's, you know, to start what I did is what 100% be categorized as crazy. So here I am doing it. And that's probably correct and a correct assumption. Yeah. And like the payoff doesn't have to be monetary at least for me. It's not cuz I'm not actively building something to sell it But more of like our whole goal with Right Coast at least is to be a solution center for New Beverage industry And if we're always doing things to be able to help emerging brands solve problems create new opportunities, and we can do that in a streamlined, efficient way that doesn't, you know, bury ourselves in a whole bunch of trouble and challenges, then that's the payoff for me. And if I can continue to do that for the next 20 years or until I can't do it anymore, that's fantastic. And I could stay on the cusp of what's happening and what's working and be an early adopter of new packaging technologies and new ways of dispensing things and liquids. Like I love all that stuff. I mean, that's where I get like my inner geek comes out is like with that stuff. And then how do I take that piece of it and then flip it back to challenge the entire industry in a way that let's make this scalable. You know, like let's figure out what's, you know, getting in the way of doing that. That's like my ultimate goal. I mean, it is fun.
[00:49:29] Ray Latif: Oh, I have a blast. It is fun to see all New Beverage that come out every year. It's the 300 plus New Beverage brands. Oh yeah, it's more than that. Well, Donok?
[00:49:40] Special Ops: Oh, for sure. In terms of like, You gotta like dig deeper than just somebody with an idea and like throwing something at the board. I mean, there's really great entrepreneurs. There's influencers who are driving a huge new channel of quick launch, quick to market beverages and food. I would say just alone, there's been 300 products just in that little channel. And if you like dig through it, it's nuts. And then you have very large brands launching, you know, like very international businesses launching new and unique things in a certain way. And you have retailers, grocery chains, all kind of looking to vie for their own shelf space almost, and bringing a lot of things back in-house, which is interesting and compelling and, you know, they're kind of fraught with their own challenges. So collectively, it's way more than 300. There's been more than 300 unique people who have reached out to us in the last six months. Wow.
[00:50:45] Ray Latif: Easily. I think I was referencing historical data where we typically see 300 New Beverage brands, but maybe, you know, over the past few years since entrepreneurship has become this viable or at least in-demand prospect for a lot of younger folks, maybe there are, you know, significant, maybe that number has doubled in recent years.
[00:51:05] Special Ops: I, it's, you know, it's fundamental to the success of my business, but the sheer number of people looking to enter this space in some ways is awesome.
[00:51:15] Ray Latif: I think I want to frame this next section as a regular section and call it projects, special projects. Okay. Special projects within or underneath the umbrella of special operations. Okay. And it's because you brought all these amazing New Beverage with you. Oh, I hope I don't break anything. In my Pringles box. Your Pringles box.
[00:51:35] Special Ops: This is how we keep everyone happy. As long as we have that box of individual cupped Pringles, people show up every day.
[00:51:43] Ray Latif: Oh yeah, it is in a box of Pringles.
[00:51:46] Special Ops: I'm pretty obsessive about snacks.
[00:51:48] Ray Latif: Can I talk about this brand that you are working on called Bashi? Yes. B-A-S-H-I. Described as a kava experience.
[00:52:00] Special Ops: I asked the founder this morning if it was okay if we talked about it. Okay.
[00:52:03] Ray Latif: Yes. Well, Kava has been in the news, you know, not necessarily in a great way, but this is a beautiful looking package. This is the peach variety and it tells you or Bashi tells you to perk the F asterisk CK up. It's in a 7.5 ounce can. You don't want a can size. But when I think about going back to getting perked, when I think about Kava, isn't Kava supposed to relax you? There's another flavor too, which I think is more what you'd expect This is the the blueberry one says mellow the F up. Mm-hmm Well, let me play devil's advocate or maybe I'll just be the devil. Okay, and ask You excited. Yeah, I did get a little bit. I was I was getting all Al Pacino on us whoever got that reference email me I Fantastic reference. Someone, someone might say, hey, this is an Erewhon brand. I expect to see this in Erewhon and not many other places. Or locally, it's a Cambridge Naturals brand. I think that's too cool for Cambridge Naturals. Okay, fair enough.
[00:53:06] Special Ops: But the Erewhon thing is correct, and that is also the second or third sentence that usually comes out of most people I talk with's expectations.
[00:53:15] Ray Latif: It shouldn't be part of their expectations, though. I mean, it should be an Erewhon, but it shouldn't just be an Erewhon, right? So I guess, how are you advising folks about the potential that you're going to get from being in heroin. Yes, you know, you'll go to a lot of people to see your product at first, but you've got to get out of there at some point, or at least you've got to go beyond heroin at some point.
[00:53:37] Special Ops: I think in working with heroin at an early stage, really understand what you're looking to get out of it. So is it just to drive trial? I mean, it's kind of an expensive way to drive trial, but you are in a market where people are looking for new things. So your, your target customers is going to be an Erewhon shopper, especially if you're making a $399, $425, you know, price point thing. But I would check on a weekly basis how the product moves. What's the velocity when it's not on a giant end cap or like a whole shelf buyout. Both of which you have to pay significantly for. Right. So I think that skews the data in my mind, whereas I'd like to see how it sells on a, you know, how does the product move every Wednesday at 11 a.m. And are people coming to look for this product over and over again? you know, find a way to do a lot of demos, to talk to people who are actively buying the products and understand what they want. So Erwan's a retailer. I think you could do that with any retailer and just understand how you can get success, you know, by partnering with retailers. And then how is that transferable to regional chains, to national chains and all these things. And that's what you need to have to unlock, to ultimately be truly successful.
[00:55:00] Ray Latif: The amount of people that are probably looking for Cape Tide Hard Tea, maybe not on a Wednesday at 11, say on a Saturday at 11 a.m. There's probably quite a few. This is another project that you're working on and zero carbonation. Yeah. Hard Tea with zero carbonation, I like that. 12 ounces, 5% alcohol by volume, brewed with premium tea, vodka, and real juice. This is very on trend, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:55:30] Special Ops: I mean, the guys behind this brand are fantastic. They're all still college students. They came to us with a really great idea. We helped them in terms of getting the formulation right and bringing this product to life. And they've just been doing all the right things in terms of blocking and tackling to open on-premise and off-premise accounts. I mean, they're cranking through much more than we planned to do like this summer, which has been fantastic. And the product, it just tastes good. That's what it comes down to too. We use a really good tea, we use real juice, real flavor, a really good spirit, and we just take care of each can that we make. And the packaging looks really great out of the gate. They're in four packs, they have a variety pack. They check all the boxes if you're stopping by a liquor store before you go to the beach, even though you're not supposed to drink alcohol on the beach. But, you know, it's a win. It's relatively easy to sell, you would think, but what a competitive space, you know?
[00:56:30] Ray Latif: Very competitive. I see a lot of brands in New Beverage alcohol business getting into either canned cocktails or adjacent categories like a Hard Tea. And a lot of them that started out in say hard kombucha or hard seltzer breaking out or branching out into these types of segments that seem to be more in line with what consumers are looking for.
[00:56:54] Special Ops: In my opinion, if you're going to make a boozed up version of something people have a really familiar understanding of, a sweet lemon tea, iced tea, I would say a majority of people have had a Snapple or an Honest Tea or, you know, a Joe's Tea. I'm just trying to think of cool tea brands. So if you're going to like add alcohol to it, it can't just be half-assed. Like you have to find the right balance and do it the right way and use the right type and have the ABVB spot on. Cause when that's cold, it's just crushable. And of all the stuff that I share with friends and family, that's been the highlight so far. Everyone likes when you give them booze, but more so like that's been like the highlight so far this summer.
[00:57:44] Ray Latif: I don't know specifically why some customers are buying this, but the reason I would buy it, and I'll read the label hierarchy here, you have zero carbonation at the top, which is, I like that, but not necessarily the reason I'd buy it. My suggestion is it should say no added sugar. For sure. That would be huge. We were just talking about that in a recent episode, actually. Gluten-free doesn't really matter to me. Cape Hard Tea. Actually, I don't really particularly love the description of Hard Tea, but again, not how else you how you got a millisecond to get your point. Exactly.
[00:58:15] Special Ops: I agree with you, though.
[00:58:16] Ray Latif: But if I was picking this up and I'd probably spend more than two seconds picking it up and looking at it. Premium brewed tea. It's huge. Vodka. That sealed the deal for me because I know what the alcohol is. This is not some, you know, fermented cane sugar. It's not a hard seltzer. And that in so many ways is the reason I believe that High Noon is doing what they're doing. A hundred percent. Yeah. A hundred percent. All right. A very personal project is obviously CulturePop and I'm holding a variety in my hand. You can talk about this one.
[00:58:53] Special Ops: Yeah. So we, I'm not going to say the flavor because I don't know.
[00:58:56] Ray Latif: That's why I didn't say the flavor.
[00:58:57] Special Ops: If and when it'll ever come out, but we have the ability to do super small runs at scale, basically. And so we had an idea to launch a eighth SKU, I think. Um, yes. And, you know, it's kind of sticking to our roots of a blend of juices and a cool spice. And this product's fantastic. Tastes great. One of the challenges is how it's going to look on the shelf. You know, how's it going to work in retail? Like, how's it going to compare with our other products? How do we build a shelf set? All these things. Because packaging and taste, we're going to nail because we know what works for our products. The color of the can is very close to what our orange mango can color used to be. And looking at the lineup, you could immediately almost tell that there was going to be not confusion, but either it's going to be an oversight because it's just going to be similar enough. You know, we ran 25 cases of it and got feedback and we're like, let's just tap the brakes. And we have other stuff in our pipeline and, you know, we're going to be launching another flavor to fill that eighth SKU void soon. We're going to make it at our place in two weeks. That has, you know, again, very cool flavors. I'd say it's our closest foray to a traditional soda flavor. but very culture popped in the sense that, you know, the way we think about flavor is a stack of things to create the ultimate experience of the named flavor and all juices. And then what are we using for a, I'll say spice as a overall encompassing thing, you know, what's going to be like the, the unique factor of it as well to, to make it, you know, a true culture pop thing. So That's another project that we have, and I think I'm saying as much as I can without just blurting it out, but as soon as we make it, I'll bring it here first.
[01:01:01] Ray Latif: Thank you. Before we wrap up, I could ask, you said you made 25 cases. Yep. Who is trying this product? Who are you?
[01:01:09] Special Ops: It was just internal. So just with our team and, you know, people close to us in terms of, you know, advisors that know what our game plan is and what we're doing, it's super helpful. Otherwise, if we kind of, we would have spent way more money. to launch something that would kind of would have been fell flat. And like, we're not at a place because Soda is so competitive, because there's a lot of activity in the space. Like we can't throw duds out there. Right. So it was an easy way to create a project, figure it out and just navigate around what's a hurdle. But, you know, that's not a big deal now. Like it show the product to people you can trust your team and make sure that everyone's on the same wavelength You know as we're growing we're we're asking for buy-in Everyone in our own organization, but then all of our retail partners and things like that too. You know it's it's no easy feat to Just whip something up and try to sell it to Really big retail partners like you have to have the conviction to stand behind it like you do everything else so this happens.
[01:02:16] Ray Latif: Well, geez, you know, I feel like we could continue this conversation for just another two, three hours. Yeah. I'm just happy just opening up beverages and chatting. And I know you're extremely busy putting in 12, 14, 15 hours a day. Yep. You need some downtime.
[01:02:32] Special Ops: So this is lovely for me.
[01:02:36] Ray Latif: Well, let's plan for three to four weeks from now. We'll get back in the studio, but love when you're coming out here, and I'm sure our audience gets a ton out of everything we talk about, or at least everything you talk about. Maybe they're like, just cut Ray's audio out. No, you're fine. You're fine.
[01:02:51] Special Ops: You're just, you're feeding me all the good stuff.
[01:02:53] Ray Latif: I try.
[01:02:54] Special Ops: It's just easy. It's the job of a good host. And I don't know if everyone will agree with what I say, and by no means Do you have to? It just comes from a place of honesty and doing it. One person's opinion, but comes from a lot of experience. Yeah. I'm happy to talk with anyone too.
[01:03:10] Ray Latif: I love this stuff. There you go. Andrew Guard, once again, thanks for being here. Thank you very much. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com Incorporated. Our Audio Engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci, our Technical Director is Joshua Pratt, and our Video Editor is Ryan Galang. Our Social Marketing Manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our Designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[01:04:07] The Cocktail: you
